Employees have more to do with the success of a brand as most of today's employees are well educated, have higher expectations on the brand they work for. Considering the work place of today which is longer work hours, greater work stress and the recent addition of redundancies, a robust internal engagement plan is critical for the long term success of any brand.
Based on my experience institutions which have open door policy have managed to create an atmosphere of respect and integrity for all employees. Internal communications should not always be on new sales incentives or new product propositions or organizational wide announcements.
Internal communications is all about evolving a organizational culture which is in sync with the brand. Few of the best internal communication/engagement principles which I have encountered at my work
1) Top Down : Meet the CEO Programme - where the CEO or the business head holds and 'open house' in his office and employees are invited to speak with the CEO/Business Head about any thing - suggestions, complaints, concerns.
2) Employee Publications: Unfortunately most newsletters or internal publications are unexciting. As marketers one key constraint we face is on budgets. Since we are in the last quarter provision it during the annual budgets may reduce the annoyance levels. One observation being printed newsletters have little or no recall value and the OTS ( Opportunity To See) is minimal as employees seldom read them. Few methods of tackling them is a e-newsletter with hyperlinks which would give us more accurate data on the time spent and bundling it with few of our credit card offers which would be exclusive to our staff
3) Market Flash: Often during the all important weekly review meeting, we face awkward moments with sales heads on marketing collaterals and also on competition. A regular market flash update to all front end branch staff - this should be every week - may be on a Monday morning highlighting last weeks competitive activity and their SWOT and analyzing it with our products. This will give greater comfort and confidence to front end as we form a critical means of cascading the knowledge
4) Internal Branding: Launch of a new campaign, or a new product or a new initiative to be shared with staff first prior the release. Though this may not be welcomed by business citing competition - a day prior to the launch may be able get their buy in. This is critical as majority of the concerns being awareness of the product or campaign within the institution. Let them live the customer experience to understand what the customers will be offered
It is critical for senior managers to meet and get to know people who are working for them. Though we live in a technology era , employees want personal contact with the managers. Getting the management buy in will be a cornerstone for effective internal communication programme
Hi,
ReplyDeleteNow this is better! Smart marketers know they have to cater to two audiences/markets. Internal and then external. If your staff aren't 'sold' on the product then how can they sell it or market it effectively?
The idea of open house sessions is good but one failing there needs to be action taken on the employees' suggestions other wise this activity may lead to more frustration.
Open house/open door mindset is pretty alien to our subcontinental behaviour. In our cultures those who occupy the seat are there to be served not to serve.
I think office notice boards and eboards are a good way to disseminate information and also employees should be encouraged to do innovation to help improve the company's processes and effectiveness
Tyrone
Thanks for the feedback Tyrone, Employee feedback forums are very effective tools in Banking scene in UAE and have managed few of them. Mostly such meetings are HR led but then internal comm's play a integral role to effectively manage them. Thank you for your feedback
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